Hoofprints: Sharks!

For the past two years, we made it a point to take a teeny, tiny family vacation no matter what. Each time, thanks to two little kids, we went to go see The Wiggles in concert. This year was no different. I know that the "vacation" is really only a two day trip. Most would scoff at even calling that a vacation. But it's the best we can do on our dime (or more appropriately, lack of dime). The past two years we had to drive all the way to Texas which wasn't exactly like divin' into a bucket of peaches and cream. This year, we lucked out and The Wiggles were heading to Oklahoma. Guess who has family in Oklahoma? Yessir! That knocked out the need for a hotel as the concert was a short 40 minute drive from their house. Sadly, this is the last year for our annual trip to see them as they have decided to retire. *sniff* I'll miss my yearly up close dose of Mr. Blue Wiggle.

Thanks to the state change, we also decide to spend the first half of the day visiting something that Alex has been dreaming about for awhile now. We went to the Oklahoma Aquarium. Alex is positively fascinated with sharks and ocean life. He's been desperate to see an aquarium after seeing and reading about them. And more importantly, he's super-interested in sharks. He has several books about them from garage sales and birthdays. We figured it would be fun to take the kiddos to finally see some sea life. I know people who have been there and said it isn't the most wonderful place to go, but I tell you what. My kids were in love with it! They are the kind of kids that love seeing things like this. Zoos are right up there with fun trips they adore making. But when we got in the underground shark tunnel, Alex's eyes lit up like a Christmas tree! I must admit that even I felt extra excited to go there. It was pretty darn cool and now we must plan a trip sometime to go to Seaworld for miss Abby. She wants to see dolphins and so it's in the works for our next possible weekend vacation spot.

I'm glad that we went. We saw some pretty impressive specimens, including a massive alligator snapping turtle that was (I kid you not) the size of my queen bed. They said that he's been around since the 1880's. Wow! We thought it was fake until we saw it moving and then I came to the swift conclusion that I shall never go into a river or lake again. I'm pretty sure if you crossed paths with that dinosaur, you'd be lunch. *shiver* I'll be breaking the trip into two blog posts. This one is the Aquarium post. It's so strange to think that next summer we'll have three kiddos tucked into our mini-van instead of two. Exciting!